Category: Indie Author

As you can see, I spent April blogging up a storm, and I loved every literal second of it. (Pun intended) But, in doing so I wore myself out.

My plan before April… was that I would post daily throughout May, but obviously April happened and now we’re ten days in and I’m busy finishing short stories while editing others.

All that means is I’ll take a more leisurely pace until June.

So, on that note what I have been hard at work on is a paranormal romance short story that is just over 15k! It features faeries and woods and the turning of the seasons from autumn to winter and while it needs a little work before it can be submitted for consideration into a rather epic anthology that Juliet Marillier is featured in, I am hopeful. I’m keeping everything crossed that my story is good enough and that I manage to make all the edits in time, because it would mean the absolute world to me if it was published.

Today is the end of the sixteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I failed dismally this week in way of words added to pieces of fiction and poetry. However, I did write an impressive 2,114 words on my blog. So, that’s a win in my book.

So, what have I accomplished in the past seven days?

Let’s list it shall we and find out!

Added 100 words to an Iron Faerie Publishing submission piece.

Added 100 words to Le Fay.

Submitted one drabble to Black Hare Press.

Wrote one poem.

Edited a couple of short stories.

And of course, the wait for contest scores continues, as does waiting to hear back on a few – 5 – submissions I’ve sent to publishers in the last month.

Oh, how I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I really hate to disappoint people. Although, I think in this industry it might be par for the course. Writing can be finicky and the muse even more so.

Alas… now to rip the band-aid off.

Sadly, Le Fay won’t be ready in time for a April 15th release. I think eight weeks out from publishing Lost is much more reasonable than six with the way I’m tracking writing wise. So, it’s likely going to be an end of April release.

And, I’m almost there. I just forgot to factor in how busy I’d be in the last few weeks of the first school term. And now that my kids are off for two weeks it’s virtually impossible to actually score time on our sole PC during the day in order to write.

Roblox takes priority apparently. It gets old fast, believe me.

So, in an effort to appease those of you who may have been looking forward to news of a pending release, I’m going to share another excerpt.

And if you’re interested in the previous excerpts I’ve shared they are here and here.Morgan stood at the base of the tree, having scaled the wire fence with only a little help from Arthur. There didn’t seem to be a doorway of any kind that would take them to the crystal cave.

“How do we get inside?”

“Magick,” Prince Arthur replied. “How else?”

Knocking on the trunk of the tree three times, they stood in silence, and waited, as right before Morgan’s eyes the trunk of the tree split open at its base and tore upwards forming a narrow doorway, just wide enough for the two of them to slip through.

With wide eyes, Morgan looked up at Arthur, trembling slightly. “Is it safe?”

“Do you really think that I’d lead you into danger, Morgan?”

“No,” she said, but neither her words nor her actions had any conviction.

“Come on,” Arthur said, holding out his hand for her. “I promised your brother that no harm would come to you and none shall.”

Today is the end of the fourteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I’ve managed to write 5008 words across fourteen days. Hard to believe, I know. This of course, doesn’t count the words that go into my blog posts, if it did, I can guarantee you the word count would be higher.

So, what have I accomplished in the past two weeks?

Let’s list it shall we and find out!

Started work on Of Blood and Fire – I’m 4,408 words into the short story which is centred around King Arthur and Camelot. Complete with dragons and… vampires. Yep! You heard correctly. Vampires!

Another month has come to a close. I spent most of it waiting on things that didn’t arrive and trying to write amongst the anxiety that came with waiting on those things that didn’t arrive. Suffice to say, March has been utterly exhausting.

Rewarding, but exhausting.

I was looking over my submissions for the quarter and I’ve subbed twelve stories and two poems. With five stories still pending completion. Not to mention I’ve written a whopping thirty-two blog posts. While I’ve had two rejections this year, on stories I felt had promise, I’m trying to not let that get me down.

And right now, I’m battling the clock on two projects. Le Fay is probably the most pressing, but another… so far untitled, is proving a mite more interesting. It’s what I like to call Arthurian Legends meets The Vampire Diaries. I couldn’t resist throwing vampires at fire breathing dragons and seeing what came about. Turns out even with Le Fay not quite finished, Morgan’s not letting go. Not that she ever has and I doubt if she ever will.

It’s early days but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to finish the third instalment, Pendragon, ready for a late May release.

It’s goodbye to yet another week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I’ve written a grand total of 2,200 words… which is slightly up from last week.

So much has happened this week, most of which I have already blogged about. So, I won’t go into it again. Suffice to say, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the poetry anthology from Dragon Soul Press that has my two little poems in it, when it releases in June.

I also received my copy of Spring’s Blessing in the mail, which featured my short story, The Dawning of Spring. If you haven’t gotten your hands on a copy you can do so here.

Yes… it’s March 21st, which means Autumn can officially start… in the Southern Hemisphere, that is. The previous twenty-one days were just a warm up… seeings as in Oz the weather can never make up its mind. I’m really over Summer, if you can’t tell.

This post is kind of two-fold today, as there’s been quite a lot going on in the niche I carved out for myself in the writing world, as small as it is now, I’m hopeful it’s going to grow into something huge. A girl can dream, right?

Two days ago, I received an acceptance for my poem, Petals, that I submitted two weeks prior and kept it completely under wraps. I truly believed I sucked at poetry, because I don’t really get how to write it. Like, I’ve always felt there’s a right way and a wrong way to write poetry and its instilled in me this immense fear of getting it wrong. So, I’ve totally just steered clear of it. Yeah, so I totally jumped out of my comfort zone for this submission and its surprisingly paid off. So, that of course lead to me submitting another poem, because I hate odd numbers… suffice to say, my second poem, Darkness, will also be appearing in the Dragon Soul Press anthology, Organic Ink, Volume One. Which will be published later this year. I can’t wait!

In other news, I’ve also submitted a drabble to another online only publication. This time it’s for Black Hare Press. I’m crossing my fingers (and toes) that I hear back soon.

Finally, I’ve also done a soft launch of my Patreon, which I’ve been debating for a long while whether to launch and I decided last night to just go ahead and do it… so, if there’s any interest at all, I’d be eternally grateful. There’s three tiers at the moment but I’m hoping to find news ways to give back to anyone who champions my cause, no matter how small, when time permits. If you would like to chip in, the link is HERE.

I truly hope that the Equinox finds you well. I really do love this time of year.

Today is the end of the eleventh week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I’ve managed to write 2,100 words and get some editing done on a few of my short stories I wrote last month. I’m still waiting on my scores for Phase 4 of Fantasia Divinity’s Interpretations Contest, but I’m hopeful they’ll hit my inbox very soon.

In other writing news, I have four short stories awaiting completion so that I can submit them to various anthologies, plus close to a dozen drabbles to write for another submission opportunity.

March is beginning to feel just a little overwhelming of late, but I’m trudging through and I’ll make it through to the other end, hopefully unscathed. And who knows, maybe by the end of the month, I’ll have a couple of acceptances to add to my pile of ever growing acceptances.

Lost, my collection of short stories is available to pre-order digitally across select retailers HERE. They’ll continue to roll out, culminating with the release of the Amazon kindle and paperback versions, available on the 28th.

The collection brings together all my previously published short stories in one volume, and includes a few new, never before seen stories as well.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

For those of you who would like a taste of the stories within, here is an excerpt from the story, Owl Eyes.

The owl screeched again. The sense of urgency drew Lleu’s eyes back to the sky. There above, a trail of white flowers blossomed before stopping short.

His breath hitched as the bird fell from the sky and landed at his feet. A small cry escaped from his lips. Looking down upon the tiny mass of white feathers, he saw an even tinier heart-shaped crimson stain spring from the bird’s chest.

The owl – Blodeuwedd – was dead.

The crimson stain had barely begun to dry upon the bird’s downy feathers when the creature transformed back into the shapely form of a woman.

Llew sighed and bent to caress the soft – though now cold – cheek of his once beloved and cherished wife.

Today is the end of the sixth week of the 365 Writing Challenge during which I’ve written 3,199 words. It’s up from last week and actually feels pretty good.

I’m still chipping away at my fifth contest entry. It’s going slower than I would like because of the research. There’s not a great deal of information about my person of interest. Plenty of movies and tv shows but when you’re trying to get down to what really happened… it’s a little more difficult. Thankfully it’s not due til the end of this month, so I have time to get it finished. Hopefully, the judges like it.

All in all a good week, writing wise. I hope to be as productive next week.